I started reading books in 2017. What I have read so far:
- 2017-06-26 — Hvalnica Rešnjemu Telesu
- 2017-08-25 — Getting Things Done
- 2017-09-16 — The Power Of Habit
- 2017-10-03 — Willpower
- 2018-03-06 — The Cultural Animal
- 2018-03-19 — Guide To Linux For Beginners
- 2018-05-28 — The Organized Mind
- 2018-06-05 — Mladi Kitarist 1
- 2018-06-17 — Linux Mint 17.3 MATE Edition
- 2018-06-19 — Calc Guide LibreOffice 4.1
- 2018-07-22 — Formatting Information
- 2018-07-31 — The Theory And Technique Of Electronic Music
- 2018-08-12 — Pure Data Documentation
- 2018-09-01 — The Linux Command Line
- 2019-01-26 — She Comes First
- 2019-04-18 — GNU Emacs Manual
- 2019-06-16 — Formatting Information — 2x
- 2020-05-22 — Getting Things Done — 2x
- 2020-06-27 — The Power Of Habit — 2x
- 2020-07-15 — Willpower — 2x
- 2021-02-24 — Head First HTML And CSS
- 2021-04-08 — Anything You Want
- 2021-07-15 — Head First HTML5 Programming
19 books, I have read few of them more than once. Let's sort them by title and comment.
Anything You Want — 40 lessons for a new kind of entrepreneur
Sivers is an amazing guy, an inspiration. He created CD Baby, sold it for 22 million.
"Anything You Want" is a quick, little book. He explains, how and why everything started with CD Baby, and all the lessons learnt.
My favourite lesson: No "yes." Either "Hell yeah!" or "no."
Calc Guide LibreOffice 4.1 — Working with spreadsheets
LibreOffice Calc is a great alternative to Microsoft Excel. I like the program, I use it on a daily basis to log my activities and notes — but the guide is unreadable.
Calc guide is not written as a story to read from start till the end — it is written as a reference to check the facts.
Formatting Information — An introduction to typesetting with Latex
One day, I am like: I am not using Microsoft Word/LibreOffice Writer anymore, I will go for LaTeX.
LaTeX is a language you use, to tell your computer how to format your content. You do not click on icons, you write the commands as a text. LaTeX documents are txt files, easy to read and maintain. No binary characters.
I check LaTeX the official page, how to gain knowledge — it contains a lot of unfriendly, dry material. Luckily, there is Peter, who uses "easy to understand" language in his "Formatting Information" book. Great material, to start with LaTeX.
Getting Things Done — The art of stress-free productivity
If you search internet with the keyword "productivity", every blog/forum talks about the book "Getting Things Done" (GTD).
David used to work as a waiter, taxi driver, gas station manager, karate instructor — nowadays he teaches, how to run your life/projects effectively, with zero stress.
Divide your stuff: actionable, non-actionable.
Non-actionable: (1) save as reference; (2) save as maybe/someday; (3) trash.
Actionable:
(1) do it now, if it takes less than 2 minutes;
(2) next action: to do as soon as you can;
(3) calendar: to do at a specific time;
(4) waiting: for someone else to do.
GNU Emacs Manual — Advanced, extensible, customizable, self-documenting editor
What text editor to use? I am asking myself the question since I went to Linux in 2018.
Peter writes about "Picking an Editor" in his book Formatting Information. Emacs is given a thumbs up — why not give it a try.
Emacs documentation is available inside the program, or get it at gnu.org.
GNU Emacs is powerful. It is a great tool to manipulate text: easy to navigate, edit, search, view. The program has different modes aka text-mode, latex-mode, html-mode, visual-line-mode, flyspell-mode — turn on/off as you wish. Use Emacs as directory/file manager, you can send/receive emails.
You don't like something, want to change it? Customize Emacs. Majority of commands are written in Lisp program.
Guide To Linux For Beginners — The ultimate guide to Linux for beginners, Linux hacking, Linux command line, Linux operating system, and more
Linux brings attention, because it is:
(1) free — donate/help as much as you can;
(2) open source — edit the code by yourself, as much as you have got time and knowledge.
"Guide To Linux For Beginners" has 50 pages. You are not going to master Linux operating system after finishing the read, but you have got to start somewhere. The book offers a quick introduction into Linux topic.
Head First HTML And CSS — A learner's guide to creating standards-based web pages
How to build your own webpage without using wordpress, wix or similar shortcuts?
Sivers has an article Should you learn programming?, which directs me to freecodecamp and the book "Head First HTML And CSS".
The book is written for complete beginners. Elisabeth and Eric, they assume you have got no knowledge about building your own website.
Finding a hosting company, how to get a domain name, uploading your files to the server? It is all explained.
Authors have a great sense of humor. They know how to make a potential dry topic desirable.
Head First HTML5 Programming — A learner's guide to building web apps with JavaScript
"Head First HTML5 Programming" is about JavaScript.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) defines a structure, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) defines a design, JavaScript defines a behaviour of your website.
I do not finish the book, since I am still busy processing HTML and CSS.
Hvalnica Rešnjemu Telesu
Alojz likes to bullshit a lot. There are few highlights in the book, but dude puts me right into sleep.
Linux Mint 17.3 MATE Edition — Official user guide
Open source; free; available online, strong community — the reasons, why I go to Linux operating system. There are different distributions of Linux, I pick Mint.
Read the guide to get a practical aspect about using Linux. The official pdf has 50 pages. No theoretical blah-blah. Get the guide at Linux Mint official page.
Linux programs are kept online at software repository. These are tested, final versions of programs, ready to be used.
Install software packages with one of these tools: Software Manager, Synaptic, command line APT (Advanced Package Tool).
Mladi Kitarist 1 — Začetnica za kitaro
Theory book for a guitar — testing a new hobby. I do not get very far.
Pure Data Documentation — Manual for Pd, a patchable environment for audio analysis, synthesis, and processing, with a rich set of multimedia capabilities
Curious about electronic music? I discover Pure Data community page and Pure Data Documentation.
Pure Data (Pd) is a program for processing audio (or graphical) signals.
I check the program, documentation. Conclusion: no idea, what I am doing. It is not going to be a priority topic.
She Comes First — The thinking man’s guide to pleasuring a woman
Enough of productivity, program-technical books, time for a topic switch: She Comes First.
The book's focus: how to pleasure a woman using your tongue.
Pro tip from the author: take your time, do not rush. Build up the tempo, step by step. In the middle of the game, if you get lost: set up your tongue as a support, do not move, let her rub against you.
The Cultural Animal — Human nature, meaning, and social life
Huge book, sometimes hard to swallow all the information.
A man is the only animal on the planet, to distinguish between yesterday—today—tomorrow. When a lion is full, it leaves the meat. It does not think about becoming hungry again tomorrow. A man thinks ahead. He prepares, stores the food for the whole upcoming winter.
How does the nature control a human's activity? Via feelings. To chase quick or long term satisfaction?
The Linux Command Line — Fourth internet edition
You can tell your computer what to do via GUI (Graphical User Interface) or CLI (Command Line Interface).
GUI: you give your PC the command by clicking on an icon. CLI: you give your PC the command by writing it as a text. In Linux, you write commands via Terminal Command Line.
If you want to master the Linux Command Line, check the page linuxcommand.org. You can download pdf of the book for free.
Author is doing his best to give the knowledge in a playful way, but it is not an easy topic. I make it to the Part 1 – Learning The Shell, and let it rest.
The Organized Mind — Thinking straight in the age of information overload
More than 500 pages, but worth the read.
A few insights of the book:
(1) modern world is overloading you with information, distracting with social media, making your mind tired by forcing you to take a lot of decisions;
(2) activity, you don't want to do, but you have to do — do it first thing in the morning, when you are fresh, full of energy;
(3) people like to categorize — always have a category "other", for stuff which do not fit anywhere else.
The Power Of Habit — Why we do what we do in life and business
If we stick to the topic of organization, productivity, self-improvement — right next to Getting Things Done, all the internet suggests the book "The Power Of Habit".
Excellent stuff. Charles talks about how habits work, how to create new, how to transform bad habits into good (old into new).
It all comes down to: Cue — Routine — Reward.
Author has two sons. They both developed a habit of waking up at 5am.
The Theory And Technique Of Electronic Music
To read about electronic music?
Miller Puckette is a professor at University of California San Diego. He wrote the book "The Theory And Technique Of Electronic Music". You can buy it on Amazon, or get it on his website, which is full of other music material.
A lot of mathematics in the book, the author does not joke around. He provides audio examples, using the opensource software Pure Data. I get a good smell of the book, then let it go.
Willpower — Rediscovering the greatest human strength
Another self-improvement book.
Top 3 advices:
(1) The Nothing Alternative: when you feel lazy, but want to do something, command yourself: either you are going to do this, or nothing else. A cheap, excellent trick. By doing nothing, you will get bored, you are going to jump on the task sooner or later.
(2) Keep track: self-monitor yourself. Write down your aims. Write, what you have done already (reference, morale boost). Write, what is there left to do, to get there (focus).
(3) Decision Fatigue: every decision you make during the day, it makes your mind tired. Your brain does not know the difference: pick a burger from the menu VS decide what college to enroll in. Automate high-frequent, less important decisions. Save the energy for occasions, when you have to decide about bigger steps.